Increases in the application of computers throughout many differing environments has led to a wide range of usage of computers and, more particularly, to the usage of computers supporting multi-tasking. While the various concurrently executing tasks in a multi-tasking environment may be operating independently without the need for any interaction, problems may arise in coordination where the various concurrently executing tasks need to interact in order to operate for their intended purpose. Furthermore, the coordination challenge may be increased where user interaction with the tasks during execution is required.
In an effort to reduce the complexity of applications having user input and present a more “user friendly” computing environment, graphic user interfaces (GUIs) have been developed. GUIs are believed to present an easier to understand interface to an application's users and, thus, reduce the intimidation of an application. GUIs typically include multiple windows in which information is presented and user input obtained. Each of these windows may interact with one or more applications and may share data with one or more applications or other windows. However, development of these multiple window interfaces may be complex as interactions between the windows may be limited by the underlying application or by particular sequences of events which may be dictated by the windows.
An example of an application environment where multiple tasks may require interaction is where multiple users share data across a computer network. Such an environment may provide convenience in that it allows a central repository of data but may add further complications in managing this data as multiple users may desire to access such data simultaneously or concurrently. Thus, applications and, in particular, user interfaces for applications may have increased complexity associated with them to manage the interaction of users with a shared network resource, such as a database, to coordinate users' interactions with the shared resource and maintain integrity of the shared resource.
Further problems may be created in a networked environment where user input may specify changes to a state of remote devices connected over a network. The problem of coordination of tasks may be complicated by introducing a plurality of unsynchronized systems, each of which may be a multi-tasking environment, which must be coordinated. Typically, coordination is provided by communications over a computer network, thereby introducing additional delay in the time between user input through, for example, a GUI, and updating of the state of individual multi-tasking environments. An example of such an environment is a distributed network management tool with tasks executing on various nodes of the computer network to be managed under the direction of a console node subject to user input to define test protocols for network management.